St. Paul daily globe., 1887-04-28
IN MEMORY OF GRANT.
The Birthday of the Dead Soldier Fit
tingly Hpnored by Societies and
Clubs at Various Places.
At Hartford Mark Twain Plants Rhetor-
ioal Spear Under Mathew Ar
nold's Fifth Rib.
The Hypercritical EngIishman's Esti-
mate of the Memoirs Given
Unsparing RidicuIe.
The Americus Club Meeting at Pitts
burs--Washfngton and New
York Tributes.

HARTFORD, Conn, April 27.-At the
annual reunion of the Army and Navy club,
OF Connecticut, this evening, the chief al
dress Oh the memory of Gen. Grant was
made by Rev. DR.. NJ. B. Riddle, formerly a
chaplain in the service. He was followed
by ). l.. Clemens. who delivered the follow
ing characteristic address:
will detain you with only just few words
Just few thousand words, and then give
place to better man-if he has been created.
Lately q great and honored author, Mathew
4 Arnold. has been finding fault with Gen.
Grants English. That would be fair enough
may be, If the examples of imperfect English
averaged more instances to the page in Gen.
Grants book than they do in Mr.. Arnold S
criticism upon the DOok-but they don't
Laughter. ~
1T WOULD BE FAIR ENOUGH,
maybe, If such instances were econimoner in
Gen. Grants book than they are in the works
OF the average standard authors, but they
are not. In truth, Gen. Grants dereiictions
III the matter of grammar and construction
are not more frequent than are such
derelictions in the works of majority of the
professional authors of our time and of all
previous time. Authors as exclusively
and painstakingly trained to the literary
trade as was Gen. Grant to sthe
trade of war. Appausel. This is not a
random statement; it is n fact, and easily
demonstrated. | have at home a book called
Modern English Literature; Its Blemishes
and Defects, by Henry Breen, countryman
OIL Mr.. Arnold. In it / find examples of bad
grammar and slovenly English from the pens
OF Sidney Smith, Sheridan, Hallam. Whately,
Carlyle, Allison, Junius, Blair Mac
cauley. Shakespeare. Milton. .Gihbon.
Southey, Bulwer, Corbett, DR.. Samuel john
sou, Trench, Lamb, Smollett. Walpole, Walker
lof the dictionary ,IChristopher North, Kirke,
SirnnrnAu mi Epon in
Walter Scott and Lindley Murray, who made
the grammar. In Mr.. Arnold's paper on Gen.
Grants book we find couple of
GRAMMATICAL CRIMES
and more than several examples of very
crude and slovenly English-enough of them
to easily entitle him to a lofty place in that
lliustrious list of delinquents just named.
Ihe following passage, all by itself, ought to
eject him; MEADE suggested to Grant that
he might wish TO have immediate under him
Sherman, who had been serving with Grant
i'll the West. He begged him not to hesitate
II he thought it for the good of the service.
Grant assured him that he had not thought of
moving him. and in his memoirs, after reat
ing that passage, he adds, ''etc.'' To read
that passage couple of times would make
man dizzy; to read it four times
would made him drunk. IGreat
laughter. Mr.. Breen makes this discrim-
mating remark; 40 suppose that because
a man is poet or historian he must be cor
rect in his grammar. is to suppose that an
architect is joiner Or physician is a COM
FOUNDER of medicines. Mr.. BreeEs point is
well taken. If you should climb the mighty
Matterhorn to look out over the kingdoms of
the EARTH 1t might be
PLEASANT INCIDENT
TO nnd straw berries up there, but great Scott,
you don't climb the Matterhorn for straw
berries. Continued applause. / don't think
Mr. Arnold was quite wise, for he well knew
that that Briton Or American was never yet
born who could safely assault another mans
English; he knew as well as he knows any
thing that the man never lived whose English
was fawless Can you believe that
Mr.. Arnold was immodest enough to
imagine himself an exception to this
cast-iron rule The sole exception discover
able within the three or four centuries during
which the English language proper has been
in existence? No, Mr.. Arnold did not imag-
me that; he merely forgot that for moment
he was moving into glass house and he had
hardly got i'll before Gen. Fry was shiverng
the panes over his head. [Laughter.i Peo-
pie may hunt out what microscopic moles
they please. but, after ALL the fact
remains and cannot be dislodged that
Gen. Grants book is a great, and
In its peculiar department unique
an Inapproachable literary masterpiece.
the line there is no higher literature than
hose modest, simple memoirs The style is
t least tiawlesS, and no man can improve
upon it; and great books are weighed and
by their style and matter, not by
the trimmings and shadings of their grammar.
There is that about the sun which makes us
forget his spots: and when we think of Gen
Grant
OUR PULSES. QUICKEN
and his grammar vanisheS; we only remember
that this is the simple soldier who, all un-
taught of the silken phrasemakers, linked
words together with an art Surprising the
art of the schools, and put into them some.
thing which will still bring to American ears,
as long as America shall last, the roll Of his
drums ana the tread of his marching
hosts. Tumultous applause. What do
we care for grammar when we think
of the man that put together that thunder
Gus phrase. unconditional and immediate
and those others, II propose to
move immediately upon your works." 81
propose TO fight it out on this line if it takes
all summer" lApplause Mr.. Arnold
would, doubtless. claim that that last sentence
is not strictly grammatical, and yet, never
less, it did certainly wake up
this nation as hundred million tons of
a l, 4-proof hard-boiled hide-bound gram.
mar from another mouth could not have done.
And finally we have that gentler phrase,
that one which shows you another true side
of the man: shows that in his soldier heart
there was room for other than CORY war
and in his tongue the gift to fifty
phrase them: LET us have peace" PRO
OnCed cheers